Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the biggest festival in China. It is a time for giving gifts to express respect and affection. Looking for ideas for Chinese New Year gifts? Here we’ve rounded up the top gifts for friends, kids, and seniors at Chinese New Year.
5 Popular Chinese New Year Gifts for Friends
Choosing a Chinese New Year gift for your friends is based mostly on the intimacy of your friendship. Here are five of our favorite go-to gift ideas for friends.
1. Tea
Most Chinese people love tea. Tea is always a nice gesture no matter whether your hosts are Chinese or not. A nicely wrapped box of tea is much better than giving bagged tea for gifts.
2. Fruits
Fruit baskets are a common and proper gift for your Chinese hosts, and they can be found in many large shops. Giving a box of oranges or a box of apples is also recommended because apples and oranges respectively symbolize safety and fortune.
3. Home Supplies
If your hosts have moved into a new house not long beforehand, then home supplies such as a tea set, electrical equipment, or crockery are popular choices.
4. Alcohol
If your Chinese hosts drink alcohol, preparing a nice bottle of alcohol could be a nice choice.
5. Tobacco
If your male Chinese host smokes, find out what he likes. He will appreciate a nice carton of whichever brand it is.
4 Popular Chinese New Year Gifts for Seniors
Instead of alcohol and tobacco, it is more popular to choose a New Year gift benefiting the seniors' health. So anything you can think of that will make the seniors feel healthier and bring pleasure to their life is okay.
1. Hat, Gloves, Scarf or Clothes
If you are familiar with your hosts, you can prepare a hat, a pair of gloves, a scarf or some clothes as a gift for the seniors in your hosts’ family.
2. Comb or Foot Bath Massager
In traditional Chinese medicine, massage is a gentle and effective way to repair one's body. A high-quality comb can be used to massage the head, and a foot bath massager will improve the blood circulation of the feet, which will bring the seniors warmth in a cold winter.
3. Tonic Foods
You can present some food that have some great health benefits such as edible bird’s nest, ginseng, walnuts, cordyceps, and goji berries.
4. Crafts
You can give the gifts according to the receivers interests. For example, paintings and porcelain for antique fans, and tea set for a tea lover.
6 Popular Chinese New Year Gifts for Kids
The key point to choosing a New Year gift for your hosts' children is to select an item which can express your good wishes to the children, either for their healthy growth or for their cleverness.
Toys are nice gifts for kids.1. Red Envelops/Packets
If your Chinese hosts have children, do not forget to prepare some red packets (hongbao).
2. Candy and Chocolates
Take some candy with you during Chinese New Year; so that you can give some happiness to the kids you come across.
3. School Supplies
Visiting your Chinese hosts with some school supplies like a writing pen, a school notebook or a nice box of painting brushes (if the kids are keen on painting) will give the kids a pleasant surprise.
4. Books
Books such as enlightening reading materials or one of the world's great classics, ideally chosen according the child’s interests, are also highly recommended, and will represent your best wishes for their future.
5. Toys
A good-quality toy is also a nice gift for your hosts' children, such as a Barbie doll for a little girl, and a remote control car for a little boy. A chess set or other game is a good gift for a teenager.
6. Clothes
If you are quite intimate with your hosts' family, you can buy their children a set of clothes as a gift. It can be a practical gift.
Things You Should Not Give as a New Year Gift
There are some things which are a big no-no to give to your Chinese friends during Lunar New Year. Don't buy them, otherwise your friends may break up with you when receiving them.
Things in Black or White
Red is the lucky color in China. As black and white are often used at funerals, white or black presents and wrapping paper should be avoided.
Necklaces
Don't give a necklace as a gift to a platonic friend. Chinese people think things like necklaces, ties, and belts are associated with intimate relations. These things are often given by boyfriends/girlfriends or couples.
A Green Hat
Wearing a green hat means one’s wife is unfaithful. So a green hat should be avoided.
More on what not to give at Chinese New Year
Tips on Giving a Gift
- The gifts should be in right colors. Red and gold are considered fortunate colors and white and black are taboo colors.
- Don't give the gift with unlucky meaning, such as clock which is related to 'death'.
- Take a pair of gifts with you, as Chinese people believe that good things should be in pairs.
- Do remember to remove the price tag. A gift with a price tag is a hint to the receiver that the gift is expensive, and that the sender is expecting a gift of the equal price.
See more on Gift Giving Etiquette.
